Pickard, Flyers shut down Rangers, 4-0

PHILADELPHIA – Reality crashed the New York Rangers’ party bus Friday afternoon as the Flyers handed the Blueshirts a 4-0 whacking.

Calvin Pickard made 31 saves for the win.

Travis Konecny scored in the first period and the Flyers added three goals in the third to seal it.

Defenseman Christian Folin (#26) Defenseman Ivan Provorov (#9) Goalie Calvin Pickard (#33) Center Jordan Weal (#40) of the Philadelphia Flyers and Left Wing Chris Kreider (#20) of the New York Rangers

“There weren’t many guys that were below the bar,” Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said. “There were none, to be honest with you. We played a real good 60-minute game. We got good minutes out of everybody and everybody went out and did their job, from our goaltender on out.”

Sean Couturier struck twice and Jordan Weal added a goal.

“The first few shifts I think our group was sharp,” Couturier said. “We were transitioning really fast. We didn’t let them forecheck anything. We created our own pressure and we created a lot of chances off of that.”

The Flyers improved to 10-10-2.

“We really didn’t have our legs from the get go,” New York coach David Quinn said. “Every few games you’re going to have stinkers. I put this in the stinker category. We were a little bit slow on everything we did — slow skating, slow thinking, slow shooting.”

The Rangers dropped to 12-9-2.

The loss snapped a three-game win streak and New York is now 9-2-1 in the last 12 games.

There is no sugar coating this loss for New York and Quinn was blunt about it after the game.

“It looked like we had a chance, but I’m sure they’re sitting on the bench thinking it should be 5-0,” Quinn said. “It swings both ways. From our perspective, it would have been nice to maybe steal a point out of here, but at the end of the day we got what we deserved.”

[WATCH: All Rangers vs. Flyers highlights]

Henrik Lundqvist made 42 saves in taking the loss.

“The only thing I don’t really like is that we kept taking chances when it was a one-goal game. You’re going to have nights where you don’t have the legs, you don’t have the energy, but you can still use your smartness,” Lundqvist said. “But when you keep taking chances and give up odd-man rushes, you’re going to pay for it in the end, and that’s what we did. It’s going to happen. You run into teams that play really well. It’s going to be hard for us to score some goals some nights. We were right there, so try to learn from that I think and get ready for [Saturday].”

Defenseman Christian Folin (#26) of the Philadelphia Flyers and Goalie Henrik Lundqvist (#30) of the New York Rangers

Center Sean Couturier (#14) and Goalie Calvin Pickard (#33) of the Philadelphia Flyers move towards the puck held by Center Kevin Hayes (#13) of the New York Rangers